Best Way to Preserve Hard Drive?

Simon42 · 11-20-2008, 06:57 PM

I just had my secondary drive go out (Thankfully I backed it up to my external a couple weeks ago) and ordered a replacement. So, I'm curious what I can do to best extend the life of my drives? I'd like to not go through the hassle of the drive with my OS going bad. Would it help to move games and music files to the secondary drive? Or just not add and delete any more large programs or files?

Sorry if there's a thread on this, the search page wasn't loading up.

Tumbleweed36 · 11-20-2008, 07:20 PM

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are two kinds of hard drives; First, there is the kind of hard drive that is dying. Second, there is the kind that is going to die. You simply can't prevent a hard drive from dying, so I suggest that you always keep a clone of your drive(s) so when the even happens you will be prepared.

Changing programs from one drive to the other simply won't prevent the time when they die. Use them, use XXClone to keep complete drive backups and you won't lose data. That is my opinion.

Simon42 · 11-20-2008, 10:36 PM

No, that's cool. I was just curious if there were certain things that put more strain on a drive or something.

Tumbleweed36 · 11-21-2008, 05:15 AM

There are things that do put more of a strain on drives, but like they say, "it all comes out in the wash." Seems like over time it all comes out the same. I would just prefer instead of worrying about this that you just keep a clone backup and enjoy the darn thing. Have a great day.

**blah789** · 11-22-2008, 10:22 AM

There are things you can do to prevent your drive from prematurely dying.
First and foremost is avoid shocks and vibrations. Even tiny ones. That's because the head flies above the platters at a tenth of a micron (at 120 rotations per second), and moves at 60 mph... It's not supposed to touch the platter (head crash is worst case scenario, but even a scratch could render the surface at that spot unreadable). So yeah - keep that drive still when it's running.
Second is avoid heat. Ventilate well if it's an internal drive. Keep it in a cool, dry place. You can monitor drive temperature with a utility like HDTune. In the summertime I open my case and place a fan directly aimed at the case to keep my drives cool. Not the best solution, but a poor man's - I also have to be careful because the fan can cause vibrations, which is the other thing i don't want.
Last, is keep it away from magnetic fields. (Mostly applies to external drives.) No one would put a magnet on top of a drive, but be careful of metallic objects you place close by (those keychains for example).

And in general just keep an eye on the drive. From time to time, run chkdsk... maybe chkdsk /r to scan the disk surface, or scan the disk surface with the drive manufacturer's utilities. Check in your event viewer (system log) from time to time to see if there are any CRC, paging, ATAPI, or disk errors. And monitor the SMART (self-monitoring and reporting technology) status (also viewable on HDTune - under the drive health tab). That's probably as much as you can do. If you're really unlucky, you could always get that one bad drive in the batch, but hopefully before it gives out, you'll have backups, and by monitoring it, you'll have advance warning.

Like the above poster said, all drives will die eventually, so the best plan is keeping backups. Multiple copies of the data. Data migration from one drive to another has become a fact of life.

11-20-2008, 06:57 PM	#1 (permalink)
Simon42 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 10 OS: Win XP SP2	Best Way to Preserve Hard Drive? I just had my secondary drive go out (Thankfully I backed it up to my external a couple weeks ago) and ordered a replacement. So, I'm curious what I can do to best extend the life of my drives? I'd like to not go through the hassle of the drive with my OS going bad. Would it help to move games and music files to the secondary drive? Or just not add and delete any more large programs or files? Sorry if there's a thread on this, the search page wasn't loading up.

11-20-2008, 07:20 PM	#2 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,464 OS: XP Professional	Re: Best Way to Preserve Hard Drive? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are two kinds of hard drives; First, there is the kind of hard drive that is dying. Second, there is the kind that is going to die. You simply can't prevent a hard drive from dying, so I suggest that you always keep a clone of your drive(s) so when the even happens you will be prepared. Changing programs from one drive to the other simply won't prevent the time when they die. Use them, use XXClone to keep complete drive backups and you won't lose data. That is my opinion. __________________ ---------- I don't receive email notifications of replies to subscribed threads. (Internet provider policy) Therefore, if I don't respond to your post within 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM and include the link to your thread.

11-20-2008, 10:36 PM	#3 (permalink)
Simon42 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 10 OS: Win XP SP2	Re: Best Way to Preserve Hard Drive? No, that's cool. I was just curious if there were certain things that put more strain on a drive or something.

11-21-2008, 05:15 AM	#4 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,464 OS: XP Professional	Re: Best Way to Preserve Hard Drive? There are things that do put more of a strain on drives, but like they say, "it all comes out in the wash." Seems like over time it all comes out the same. I would just prefer instead of worrying about this that you just keep a clone backup and enjoy the darn thing. Have a great day. __________________ ---------- I don't receive email notifications of replies to subscribed threads. (Internet provider policy) Therefore, if I don't respond to your post within 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM and include the link to your thread.

11-22-2008, 10:22 AM	#5 (permalink)
blah789 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,233 OS: Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP SP3	Re: Best Way to Preserve Hard Drive? There are things you can do to prevent your drive from prematurely dying. First and foremost is avoid shocks and vibrations. Even tiny ones. That's because the head flies above the platters at a tenth of a micron (at 120 rotations per second), and moves at 60 mph... It's not supposed to touch the platter (head crash is worst case scenario, but even a scratch could render the surface at that spot unreadable). So yeah - keep that drive still when it's running. Second is avoid heat. Ventilate well if it's an internal drive. Keep it in a cool, dry place. You can monitor drive temperature with a utility like HDTune. In the summertime I open my case and place a fan directly aimed at the case to keep my drives cool. Not the best solution, but a poor man's - I also have to be careful because the fan can cause vibrations, which is the other thing i don't want. Last, is keep it away from magnetic fields. (Mostly applies to external drives.) No one would put a magnet on top of a drive, but be careful of metallic objects you place close by (those keychains for example). And in general just keep an eye on the drive. From time to time, run chkdsk... maybe chkdsk /r to scan the disk surface, or scan the disk surface with the drive manufacturer's utilities. Check in your event viewer (system log) from time to time to see if there are any CRC, paging, ATAPI, or disk errors. And monitor the SMART (self-monitoring and reporting technology) status (also viewable on HDTune - under the drive health tab). That's probably as much as you can do. If you're really unlucky, you could always get that one bad drive in the batch, but hopefully before it gives out, you'll have backups, and by monitoring it, you'll have advance warning. Like the above poster said, all drives will die eventually, so the best plan is keeping backups. Multiple copies of the data. Data migration from one drive to another has become a fact of life.